Jan 30 2010

Have felt like crap all this week. Almost like flu symptoms.  Thursday night I should have been deadlifting 140kg suited but could barely raise 105kg raw.  Needless to say I called it quits and didn't even bother putting the suit on.  That night I felt feverish in bed, but was too lazy to get out of bed and take some panadol - dreamt that I did tho' and it was so real - must have been hallucinating!

So in all honesty this week hasnt been brilliant for training with me skipping some of the prescribed work from the Sheiko program I'm following.  Next week will be better!

On a more positive note my trip to Europe is booked.  My niece Robyn is coming with me.  We leave here on September 25th and arrive in Prague on September 26 then make our way to Pilsen for the World Masters Powerlifting Championships which runs for a week.  Then well head back to Prague for a day or two. On to Paris via Frankfurt by train and over to London via the Eurostar train. We have a few days siteseeing around London before heading off on our Trafalgar tour for 20 days seeing 11 countries in Europe.

The Itineraray is like this:
London, Paris, Avignon, Barcelona, Nice, Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Innsbruck, Lucerne, Rhineland, Amsterdam and finally back to London before flying home again on October 30.  Back in time for Melbourne Cup!  :-)

The other good news this week is that I am still graded as Elite II, just scraping in above the cutoff of 405kg total with the 407.5kg that I lifted at Nationals last year.  Phew!  Mind you Elite I is now another 35kgs away requiring a 440kg total - previously 420kg.

Here's the Powerlifting Australia announcement:

Sizeable increases to grading/qualifying totals with release of 2010 PA Regulations (29/01/10)

The 2010 Powerlifting Australia Regulations has now been released with the major interest surrounding the changes in the grading scales / qualifying totals. The gradings have increased 3-5% across the board as the quality of lifting in the country and the enhancement of supportive gear has improved over the last few years.

Direct ink to qualifying totals / grading  page

 

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Jan 25 2010

Hooray for Holidays!

2 weeks off to enjoy sleeping in and doing nothing in particular!

Finally started back training last week after having almost 3 weeks off to let my body have a much needed recovery. The 4 week shieko plan I followed before Christmas was certainly different and I'm going to give it a bit more of a run up to the first comp of the year in April.  I've started out on the Dave Bates 12 weeks reduced volume equipment cycle which Steve Pritchard recommended. Being that last week was 12 weeks to the comp made the program perfect.

Last week was hard, my motivation was down and the weights all felt heavy, but by the third workout I was finally staring to feel a little better and suitably sore the next day.

I'm having to re-shuffle my training plans around a bit too, I've enrolled in French language lessions which are being held on Wednesday evenings, so now I'm training on Tues, Thurs and Saturday's with swimming being put off to Friday's.  Actually I went last Friday and it was surprisingly quiet at the pool - I like that!

I had hoped to make a return to the saddle this year also but I'm not sure how I'm going to squeeze it in now with DARC also being on Satuday mornings its going to clash with my training.  Mind you, Mojo has no shoes on at the moment so cant be ridden anyway....

Rumour has it that the gradings are being increased, I hear by around 5%. For me this will mean that I drop back from Elite II to A Grade  based on my current total and Elite I is bumped out of my immediate reach. Not that I think its a bad thing, probably Elite I and II were a bit easy to get, after all it should only be the best of the best. And it keeps that carrot dangling in front of me.  We'll know more later in the week.

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Jan 3, 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Just got back from a few days break up at Lake Eildon where Andrew's parents have a holiday home with a barge/party boat, speed boat and some jet ski's.  I can see now why Leah and Andrew head up there so often thru summer.

Leah and Madii

New Years eve the weather was spectacular and hot! But shortly after midnight the heavens opened.  A massive storm came thru, I've never seen such a spectacular lightning show as this.  The next day it was calm but no where near as hot.  Still we were able to go out on the boat and have a lazy day on the lake.  Again in the evening a fierce storm came thru this time with gale force winds and huge hail stones half the size of a golf ball.

Lake Eildon by day

 

Lake Eildon by night

The next morning the real damage was evident.  A large tree at the edge of the lake had fallen - right onto the speed boat :-(

 

Now onto 2010....   First up I'm taking a couple of weeks break from training to let a few niggles settle down and finally give my body a chance to recover properly.  I completed the sheiko #29 which I started almost immediately after the last comp (hence the need for a break) and made a modest improvement in my raw squat, no change in the bench and I didn't test my deadlift.  I must say the program really trashed my lower back which is 1.why I didnt do a 1rm test and 2. why I need to recover.


I'm considering sheiko'ing it up to the first 3-lift comp which will be the Melbourne Championships in April. I have the next two weeks to mull over  my tactics for this year.

On a fun note, I found a pair of Aussie flag knickers!  They're by Davenport so I bought 2 pair, one which I'm keeping to wear under my lifting gear at World Masters in September.  How cool are they!

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